feet first into hell
by spark n' Jetz
Summary: An ODST's story. His life. An adventure behind and in front of Covenant lines. (NOTICE:1000 words per chapter. Prologue is an exception.)
1. Prologue

**Hello everybody! Decided to try another halo story. Wish me luck (or you'll be reading a crappy story).**

**Everybody! Listen to never forget by Martin O donell. It's a halo song that goes along with the game, but it fits if you listen to this while you're reading this chap. Seriously, you really need to listen to never forget for this chapter. Go to grooveshark dot com's website, and search up never forget.**

I stared out. It was cloudy. The supercarrier was lighting up it's ventral cleansing beam. I knew I had failed. All this time! My whole life, led up to so many moments, but this was the last. I coughed up blood, smearing my already bloodied face. I was lying down, with my head turned. The craft, roughly thirty kilometers long, shot a beam of light down into the city. It erupted, with a wave of light. And then I was engulfed in that light. And I knew I had passed. I had served long enough. Now it was time for the future generation of humans to come. My time had come. But first, let me tell you of my story.


	2. first day

**Hello everybody! Sorry for the delay of this chapter, I wasn't really able to think of any good ideas so I took it easy. This is only my second halo story, so this might be another experimental story. I'm also planning to maybe make one last story about some marine and his story. I honestly don't know.**

** Please R&R, and enjoy the story.**

**(P.S. if you're looking for a good halo video to watch on youtube, particularly machinimas, watch these below**

**The dark one-halo Reach machinima**

**Ghost ship-halo reach machinima**

**Tales of reach-shattered honor-halo reach machinima**

**Altman-halo reach machinima**

**PM me if you want to know more, or just review,**

I was born in 2509. We were fighting the Insurrectionists, which was a rather big rebel group. The war had gone on for quite some time. The UNSC armed itself with frigates and guns, weapons, artillery, air support, infantry, and sorts of stuff, undoubtedly preparing itself for the war to come, without knowing it. While the innies did tons of damage, however, without them, I have to admit we might have not of won. My parents disappeared at a young age, leaving me with my Cousin, Thirty years old, and a talented retired military soldiers. He was a bit strict. A bit too strict. Pushups, all that kind of stuff. Laps, situps, anything for me to grow out of my skinny body. He pressed me to start in the military when I turned eighteen, but I wasn't really interested. Not until he told me he knew a friend, who was in a branch of the UNSC. The ODST branch. Orbital drop shock troopers. Launching from pods, landing planetside, providing a good amount of damage, and being pulled out.

When I turned eighteen, I knew what to do. The covenant had attacked Harvest. I was living on an outer colony, not three systems shy of Harvest, Dezania. Hell, I was scared. But I joined the ODSTs. I didn't actually start at eighteen. I started at 23, at the end of the attack on Harvest. The planet was gone, but we needed to show the aliens, or the covenant as they referred themselves, what we were made of, which consisted of 1,000,000 plus people being killed. Human civilians, soldiers, naval officers. We lost the colony as soon as the covenant arrived.

But Admiral J. Preston Cole didn't take it so. He launched a massive counterattack. And that's when the UNSC went into full mobilization. Admiral J. Preston Cole took down the seven ships that had attacked Harvest, identified as Corvettes and carriers later in the war. At the cost of twenty one ships. Twenty one. Our MAC cannons barely penetrated the Covenant ships shields. The innies were pushed aside, nothing more than a distraction.

Humans had met an alien race! But not a peaceful one. The two AIs, Artificial intelligence, were massive, well, I dunno. Operating systems. Sif, and some other AI sent out a peace treaty. The covenant returned the favor by glassing the AI's base, killing thousands of humans along with it, courtesy of the alien bas$% !

I still remember. The day when we arrived. Shila system. Ezlo, the planet where an ODST training camp was located, was where we would be for the next 8 months.

February 3rd, 2532 (UNSC Calendar)

UNSC ODST training camp, Shila system.

A dozen drop ships landed, each carrying fifteen soon-to-be ODSTs, if they made it out of the camp. So, roughly 180 recruits, including me. We filed into the main building. All of them were grey, and ugly. Not like the UNSC would spend much time on some distantly located ODST camp when they're busy fighting an all out war. And losing. I was lost in thought and didn't realized moving until the person at the desk glared at me and coughed. I snapped out of it.

"Name?"The guy asked.

"Matthew Devons."

"Date of Birth?"

"August 19th, 2509,"I say.

"Roger. Go into the building to your left. Your sergeant will be waiting. Willows is a tough one,"he said and smirked, obviously looking forward to see me fail. I tried not to shoot back, and instead went into the building like everybody else before me.

"Recruits!" Our sergeant yelled.

"I'm sergeant Willows Sazowski. I am now currently your sergeant and I promise I will make this time hear absolute hell. Now with that happy thought, you're completely under my control. Five kilometers, go!" the sarge said.

We weren't expecting that, or any of this for the matter so we were sluggish. Or at least by Sazowki's terms we were. The lap course was right next to us, and the first of us that responded (me) and some other guys started running like we've never done before. The sergeant and a couple of his 'enforcer's started pushing the slow-pokes around, and soon we were a glob of runners. There had to be at least 100 of us. I knew we wouldn't all pass through though.

The sarge followed us like a sheep herder and kept us moving. At two kilometers, people started to get sweaty. At three, people were lagging behind. At four, people were stumbling. I managed to keep it up, mainly crediting my cousin. I just resolved to keep up.

"The marker's right ahead people! Around the corner!" And around the corner we went. Only to fall face first into the mud. The other physically fit people followed. I scrambled out of the way, not wanting to be crushed. Another wasn't so lucky and somebody toppled onto his leg and he howled in pain.

What was the point of being first then? I asked myself. I soon found out why. The last people to make it were actually thrown in by the sarge and his 'enforcers'. Soon we were a massive heap in the mud. All a hundred of us. Luckily it was a wide space, and many people crawled out. Other's sat content writhing in the the mud trying to get a mysterious person off them.

Then I looked ahead. And I saw horror. In my colony, we had this tradition of every year, People eighteen and over would go through this course. It was based off of 4 courses. Running three miles. Then go through the ditch. Then plunge yourself below zero water. Climb out and run through electrified vines. I had seen it. People who had the guts went screaming into the vines and violently limbo-ed around and after they got out they collapsed. Why did this seems so suspiciously like that?

"That, my friends, will be your daily run everyday. And before us, the living beauty, THE DITCH!" the sarge said. We stared at it. Mud ran like a river for at least two hundred feet. Barbed wire sat exactly 11 inches over the mud.

"Here are your instructions. Get through as fast as you can, or get a pretty bad scalp. First round!" he said and started selecting people to go first. I was one of them.

"...Go!" he yelled and we started off. Halfway through the course somebody chickened out. Two more guys started to shout at the sarge. The sarge gave them a beating. Only me and two other guys made it through.

"Seven minutes! Seven minutes! That was far from record time. You will go under five minutes or you, will get no lunch. Got that?"he yelled in my face.

"Yes sir!" I say.

He took that as a joke. I wasn't really sure whether which one I wanted to imply. Good, recognition of superior command and respect, or somebody who wants to mess around. He took the latter.

"Think this is funny? Well how is this funny when I make you go through the ditch with every single round?"he said. I gulped.

"I thought so. I'll give you proper punishment later," he said, and with that, he started the second round.

"It's been one hell of a day,"I mumble.

"It's 9:00"one of the ones who made it said next to me.

****"Well %^& time."


	3. CTF

**A/N: Hi guys, I've recently gotten past a really big annoying writers block. I've managed to finally break through, and decided this was a good story to continue. My story profile is annoyingly overflowing, so, I need to finish stories, including this one. This will be a fairly long series, and there may be a considered part two.**

**Anyway, I've decided I want to skip ahead in training. I really don't feel like spending another four-five chapters writing training stuff. So, I will be jumping ahead a bit.**

November, 28th, 2532 (UNSC calendar)

UNSC ODST training camp, Shila system

Eight months of training. Wait, scratch that. Eight GRUELING months of training. I can barely remember what a bed with real blankets looked like, or a regular day with orange juice and toast. My uncle was cake compared to this. Suddenly, I found myself flying a few feet, and snap back to reality. I was in one of the final training round, to determine whether you could be an ODST or not. There were nine barracks, each with twenty people in that barrack. Now, There were only two barracks that still had people in them, with only ten in each. Willows showed no mercy. The first month, thirty people had already failed.

The second, was a bit less, and as we got used to it, less and less people gotten kicked out. Now, we were playing a game of capture the flag. My team, 1st barracks, was against the other last team, 2nd barracks. 10 v.s. 10. Each of our SMGs, along with assault rifles or battle rifles, even sniper rifles, contained TTR pellets, or tactical training rounds, that, when hitting your armor, created an armor lockdown, therefore presenting you useless for the rest of the game.

Someone had thrown a TTG, tactical training grenade, blowing me off my feet, but not doing any damage. I lift up my SMG, and see a person wearing ODST training armor with red stripes securing the area with a battle rifle. I let loose my magazine and two dozen TTR rounds slam into his armor. I run over, grab ammo from his TTR M6D pistol, with was our secondary weapon, and his remaining TTG.

I watch my motion tracker. I was on offensive for my team, blue team. A sniper rifle round crackled in the distance. I kept running. I was deep in their territory. Suddenly, two red dots appeared behind me. I throw a TTG. Immediately, one red dot blinks out. The other one follows. TTR rounds hit the wall beside me as I run through an alleyway. He has an SMG, like me. I run up the stairs of a building, and I get quite a surprise. Red teams sniper, looking through the scope. I quickly shoot before he notices me, and throw my last TTG down the stairs. The red dot was still there, but now it was more cautious. I was in a narrow room, with only one way out, with the enemy coming up the stairs, ever so slowly. I calculated it would take more time to turn around and shoot him, then him to just shoot up the stairs.

Suddenly, gunfire could be heard in the stairs, and I take my chances and look. The red team member was on the ground, with armor on lockdown. Behind him is a blue team member, whom I recognize as Alex Jones. He was the one on the first day of training that told me my mental clock was wrong (9:00). Since then, he was placed in my barracks and we had talked together. He was 22, a year younger than me, and both his mother, father, and his older brother were in the marines. So far, none of them had perished. However, they almost never got to see him, so he got sick of being with his aunt, and joined the ODST's. He was the closest thing I had to a friend around here. Sure, my barracks had a few laughs together, but never with Willows around.

"You owe me one,"Alex says, undoubtedly smirking behind his helmet.

"Consider us even. I got smuggled that pack of sweet williams from Willows, remember! That was one hell of a job.

"Fine. Let's go cap the flag."

We set off. It was now currently six on five, red team winning. Four of of us were protecting the flag, now that we were outnumbered, and Alex and I, along this guy everybody called Hedge. That guy with an assault rifle was unstoppable.

We were two hundred meters from the flag. We quickly go past sandy abandoned buildings. Four five. One down on each team. One hundred meters. Three three, we're tied. Three two, blue teams favor. Two one, blue teams fav-multiple TTR pellets zoom past me and interrupt my thoughts. We were at the flag I dodge back, but lose the SMG. I pull out my pistol and see Alex on the ground. I spot the attacker. One one, tied, my HUD echoes. She was a girl, one I recognized as her name as Ashley.

She had dropped her SMG too. Me against her. We both had our pistols drawn, pointing at each others head. Suddenly, she throws a TTG so fast, it was amazing. I fly back (I do this too much) , but in the process shoot my pistol's TTR round into her helmet. We both dropped down on the ground. Our HUDs echo _Tie_.

A few minutes later, teams of enforcers, medics, and technicians come and disable lockdown. We all get up and take out helmets off. I have jet black hair and brown eyes. When Ashley takes her helmet off, a flow of red hair drops down. Technically, she was supposed to cut it regulation, but she was literally the only person in the whole group of 180 people who had managed to get what she wanted from Willows. Not that she wasn't Demanding, needy, or stuck up, like Willows couldn't stand for.

There was something in her voice. It wasn't cold, but it was firm. She had blue eyes. She notices me staring and glares at me. I look away, embarrassed. she doesn't talk a lot. None of us had sustained major injuries, Just a few bruises. Ashley rubs her head, and then glares at me again. Hey, she sent me flying with a training grenade. It was only fair.

We board pelicans and fly back to the barracks. This was actually an abandoned town that they used for CTF finales and such. We had to go through constant deathmatch, team deathmatch, and such for the majority of November. I guess since it was the last month, we were supposed to do all those things.

The pilot's voice crackles through the intercom.

"We'll be landing in five minutes, Willow would like to have a talk with you about the last game, and what happens now."

"That was cliched,"Alex commented.

"What, the pilot?"I ask.

"No, your face off,"Alex said.

"She was kinda cute, in her own way. Fallen for her? I'll leave her to you if you want,"Alex says.

I glare at him.

"Wait what! No!"I say, blushing.

"Aw, you've already fallen for her. By now we've drawn the rest of the attention of 1st barracks, and I'm super red. Thank god 2nd barracks was in another pelican, but my hopes were squashed when Alex told me that he should consider telling her.

"Get me another pack of sweet williams, and I'll think about it,"Alex says.

"A, that's nearly impossible, B, that's blackmailing, and C, just knock it off."

"You never denied it."

****I open my mouth to say something, but then we land and the ramp opens up, and I walk out. That must've been the worst pelican ride ever, except for when Willows made us go through a 'special' ditch, Where we had to ride back to the barracks in muddy clothing for an hour. Ugh.


End file.
